Maghaberry jail is where Irish Republican prisoners in the Six Counties who did not agree with the Good Friday Agreement remained while the Provisions walked out under the terms of the Agreement. Subsequently their numbers have been swelled by others also opposed to the GFA. Although the British and the Northern Ireland Executive's Justice Minister deny they are political prisoners, they call them "Separate" because they are separated from non-political prisoners within the jail. After broken agreements, ongoing harassment and violent and physically intrusive body searches, the prisoners now escalate their protest campaign.

It has been said that we live in a business run society which is characterised by business parties masquerading as political parties and a 'political class' that implements policies which more often than not puts the interests of 'big business' ahead of the well being of the general populace. The unprecedented nature of bank bailouts in this country along with continued and debatable payments to bondholders with an apparent absence of serious public consultation let alone a referendum on matters with such wide-ranging and generational consequences seems to lend some credence to this characterisation of modern society.

Below is the first in a series of articles relating to social welfare within the twenty six counties. Amongst the specific issues dealt with will be cutbacks, 'fraud' and the broken promises and hypocrisy of the Fine Gael/Labour coalition less than 100 days after taking office

Sunday Independent journalist Jim Cusack has a consistent track record of writing highly dubious stories, based solely on anonymous Garda sources. In the June 19th edition of the newspaper, he makes a lame but insidious attempt to mitigate the behaviour of the Gardaí in Co Mayo who recorded themselves talking about raping women in their custody last March. He claims to have been shown new video footage, supposedly of the incident on March 31st, and this forms the basis of his article. Unfortunately for him, this footage, if it exists at all, is clearly not a recording of the incident in question.

The evidence Quinn failed to acknowledgeon the front page of report handed to him on 24 May 2011)

In letters to Joe Costello TD and Bethany Home Survivors Chairperson, Derek Leinster (attached), Ruairi Quinn TD, Minister for Education, turned down the survivors' request to have the Home included in the Schedule to the Residential Institutions Redress Scheme.

They met the Minister on 24 May last, accompanied by other survivors from the home, and by Niall Meehan from Griffith College Dublin. Inclusion is necessary in order for survivors to apply for compensation for the neglect they suffered in the home that the state was aware of but ignored.

Responding to a recent measles outbreak in which 17 adults and children have been infected with the highly infectious disease , Dr Deirdre Mulholland, Director of Public Health for HSE East, has urged people to get themselves and their dependants vaccinated , saying, “the best protection is to be fully vaccinated with 2 doses of MMR vaccine."
The majority of the patients currently being treated are from north Dublin; five are from Meath, the HSE said today. A spokeswoman for the Measles Outbreak Control Team said that alerts regarding the disease have been sent to all Emergency Departments and GPs in Dublin, and Meath.

Dear friends, in case you missed this shocking news last week, while en route to occupied Palestine four Irish people were seized by Israeli authorities in Ben Gurion airport and deported. Below is a statement issued by the four deportees which includes a call for you to write to the Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney (minister@dfa.ie) voicing your concerns about this arbitrary expulsion of human rights activist to stop them from bearing witness to the effects of Israel’s apartheid regime

In the face of the worst housing crisis since rackrenting of the 19 th century why is Irish society so hung up on cement houses that resemble bunkers.There are numerous alternatives to cement and concrete and most western countries and developing world universities are exploring and investing in education for engineering and architectural studies called biotecture and geotecture knowledge transfer degrees

The Right2Water campaign is currently developing a submission in relation to the River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) which will be submitted to the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government as part of their consultation process.

In order to ensure all Right2Water Ireland's supporters' voices are heard and are involved in this process, we are asking you to fill in this short survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PKN3YXN

Ireland has become the fourth European country to ban hydraulic fracturing (after France, Bulgaria and Germany). On June 28, the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development (Prohibition of Onshore Hydraulic Fracturing) Bill passed the final legislative stages in the Seanad.

The session included the committee, report, and final stages that took place in the Seanad chamber, where the gallery was full of supporters of the ban. It now requires only the signature of President Michael D. Higgins to become law. This is expected in the coming days.

On 24 May 2017, two peace activists Dave Donnellan and Colm Roddy were sent for jury trial because the District Court judge finally refused to accept jurisdiction. The judge said the alleged criminal damage newly set at €3,500 was so large as to make it a serious charge.

Originally appeared on June 8th
Today marks World Ocean Day 2017, a global day of celebration honouring the world’s oceans and an opportunity to appreciate, conserve and protect our marine life and habitats.

And rightly so. A widely cited study by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation for the World Economic Forum warns that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

A separate report in the journal Science estimates that 8 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans each year – the equivalent of one truckload per minute. One researcher for the study likens this amount to lining up 5 grocery bags of rubbish on every foot of coastline around the globe.

As minister-for-poverty in one of the richest countries in the World (or at least one of the most indebted) Minister Varadkar achieved fame in the run up to the Leadership context with his April 2017 Campaign against welfare recipients and the unemployed: ‘Welfare cheats cheat us all“.

Will the next General election feature many new candidates.
Will they make much of a difference or will many be elected?
What formula should people use to vote i.e 1 to 5 even if it is the least bad of a bad lot?

The recent furore over Public Service Card (PSC) has highlighted the sly and underhand way the government has tried to introduce identity cards through the backdoor. In a typical fashion for the political system in Ireland, they have without any public discussion, legislation or clear thought tried to push this through to the unsuspecting public or at least most of them. Even the police state next door, the UK, rejected identity cards when the UK House of Lords rejected identity cards in early 2006.

This is opinion & analysis piece comes from Integrity Ireland who are attempting to fight corruption in the legal system and face an uphill struggle in their task and this piece illustrates well what they are up against.
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Well, it has been an interesting few weeks again, with reports of increasingly odd and bizarre ‘developments’ – especially regarding decisions being made by Gardaí, by Courts Service Staff and by senior personnel at the DPP’s Office.

Shannonwatch strongly condemns the facilitation of a meeting between US Vice President Mike Pence and US troops at Shannon Airport on Saturday last. The use of the airport by foreign troops on their way to a war zone is in breach of Irish neutrality, and the decision to hold a public display of support for a foreign leader promoting war on Irish soil is dangerous and unwelcome

The housing crisis is a running sore in Irish society. It cries out for a campaign of ‘people power’ to force through a programme of council house building, rent controls and to end landlord evictions.

For the past two years, People Before Profit has been working with others to help create a coalition that can bring tens of thousands onto the streets.

In recent years a dear friend was lost to massive heart attack. A young man Paul "Pulit" Carroll, collapsed in his home one evening after work. He would never again regain consciousness and was laid to rest some couple of weeks after.

In his memory and to support his young children, a life long friend who has not only a passion for motorbikes but was also All Ireland champion road racing rider for consecutive years in his motorbike road racing career, Mr Keith Costello will travel the entire country on his motor bike December 14th 2017 to honour his friend and raise funds to support the daughters left behind.